"You need to explain this to me Todd and you need to do it now." Sophie bit as she leaned across his desk.
It was 8am on a Monday morning and the pair had been in work for only 10 minutes. Many of Sophie's employees hadn't arrived yet, or if they had, they were wandering around the food hall, filling themselves up for breakfast. Therefore, there was enough peace and quiet to give Sophie a second to question Todd on this whole gang situation. He had been up all night, trying to figure things out with Matt through a phone call and in Sophie's mind, this had been going on for way too long now.
"I haven't figured everything out..." Todd began to say before Sophie cut him off.
"I don't care. I want to know what you know so far. You've been so vague with me and I don't like it."
Letting out a long sigh, Todd nodded his head. He knew he had been vague and he felt bad about that. He was always so honest with Sophie, no matter what but this time around it had been different. He didn't want her involved. He wanted her kept out of this for her own good yet it was getting harder to do that considering how long this had been dragged out for.
"I know, I'm not trying to keep secrets from you."
"I know you're not but you're also not being open with me about this." Sophie insisted, as she had an idea why. "If this daughter of Jazmine's is yours, yeah it'll suck but I'd rather you just be honest with me."
"She's not mine." Todd immediately refused, considering to him, that was the simplest part of all of this.
"What? But you said-"
"I know what I said and I was lying."
"Why the fuck were you lying, Todd?!" Sophie exasperated, unbelieving that he would do that. "I thought you were over playing games with your brother? You're supposed to be helping them."
"I am helping them. I'm not against them." Todd assured as he gestured for Sophie to take the seat beside him but she didn't comply.
"But you lied to them? That doesn't really make any sense."
"I made a promise to Jazmine a long time ago, that no matter what, I have to keep. It doesn't hurt Matt or that gang at all. It's just keeping her daughter safe." Todd explained but it still made very little sense to Sophie.
She knew that making any sort of promise or deal with Jazmine was a bad idea. That girl would hold you to it for life and would likely make you suffer if it meant keeping her secret. It was like making a deal with the actual devil and Sophie didn't understand why Todd would do something so stupid.
"Jazmine fell pregnant when we were working in the same gang... this was about 21 years ago now." Todd began, cautiously watching Sophie's reaction as he explained this. He knew she'd be making the calculations in her head, while also trying to figure out what was going on here. "The kid was Cole Gibson's."
"So why the hell did you say she was yours? I don't get it, Todd!"
"Because having a girl Gibson is never going to end pretty, Soph." Todd remarked and there was such warning behind his voice. "Jonathan Gibson is not a fan of any baby girls being born under that name. You know what happened with the whole Juliet situation, right?"
"Yeah but..."
"If it hadn't have been for Jay, Juliet would have been killed. He's kept her away from that shit happening her whole life. That's what I was doing for Jazmine's kid. It sounds insane because it's Jazmine but the baby was innocent."
Todd watched the realisation fall across Sophie's face for a moment. She understood now, he could see that. Jonathan Gibson was a cruel man and he had wanted Juliet gone the moment she was born. Jazmine knew the moment she had given birth to that little girl that she couldn't tell Cole, or anyone for that matter. If word got back to Jonathan, her baby girl wouldn't have survived a single day. Even Jazmine wasn't capable of taking him on.
Therefore, Todd had agreed to put his name on her birth certificate. He had done Jazmine a favour because he knew it would save her baby's life.
"What a sexist arse." Sophie bit and Todd couldn't agree more. It summed Jonathan up perfectly and even as the years went by, he never changed.
"That's accurate, yeah."
"Okay, so, I get that part and I know you were doing good but what I don't understand is why you lied to Matt and Jay? Yeah Jay's a Gibson but like you said, he protects Juliet, so why would he throw Jazmine's daughter into trouble, when he supposedly loves Jazmine?" Sophie stressed, finding this whole thing incredibly confusing.
"Because like I said, I made a promise to Jazmine. When she wants to tell Jay, that's cool but it's not my place to say it."
"Doesn't she trust, Jay?"
"They were enemies for a long time. It takes a while to build up that trust, if at all." Todd explained, knowing that this gang world was complicated. Unless you were apart of it, it wasn't always easy to make sense of it.
"So if you are trying to protect Jazmine's daughter from Jonathan, why would you throw Jazmine under the bus?" Sophie asked. "You told Jay and Matt that they couldn't trust her. That she was playing both sides."
"and I do think that. I'm almost certain that she is in it for her own sake. Just because I made a promise to protect her daughter, does not mean I'll let Jazmine get away with shit."
Todd was always suspicious of Jazmine. He knew she couldn't be trusted. Therefore, when things started to piece together, putting her under the spotlight, it made sense to him. She was always in it for herself and if this was all about putting the next generation on top, then what better way to make her name remembered than through her daughter?
"You really think she's trying to take everyone down? Jay? Matt? That whole gang?"
Jess had always told Sophie stories about her sister, confirming how truly heartless she was, but it still didn't add up to her. Why would she throw away what she had with Jay after it took so long to get here. She wasn't losing out by working with Jay's gang, she was going to benefit from it and her daughter could too.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out. I am almost certain that she'll go for the Gibson's but I don't know if Jay will be excluded from that. I don't know if she truly wants to work alone or if she's just targeting individual people, but I do know that she can't fully be trusted." Todd finalised, knowing that no matter what happened, he had to keep an eye on her.
Jazmine was risky and until he figured out exactly what was going on, he wasn't going to stop. He had Sophie and her kids to look out for, his own family. He wasn't going to let his past come and jeopardise the future he had ahead of him.
"Just promise me that you won't say anything to Juliet. If she finds out, she'll tell Matt but she may also freak out because of what it means in regards to her."
That was a difficult promise for Sophie to keep. She didn't want to hold information back from Juliet, especially when in some twisted way it connected to her, but she also knew that Todd was right. At the end of the day, it was for everyone's good... for now.
"Okay, I won't say anything." Sophie promised before making her way around to Todd's side of the desk and holding out her hand.
Once he had taken it, she guided him to his feet before wrapping her arms around his chest, enveloping him in a tight hug. She knew he needed this. He was stressed beyond belief and he looked exhausted.
"Go home and get some sleep. You shouldn't be working like this."
Although Todd wanted to refuse, he knew that Sophie was right. These long nights were not doing him any good. He needed to be at his best and that wasn't happening while he was filled with exhaustion.
...
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